Former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya on Monday admitted signing the P54-million-a-month Metro Rail Transit (MRT) maintenance contract without knowing the firm that would take on the deal.

Abaya made the disclosure during a Senate public services committee hearing during which she was quizzed by Senator Grace Poe on whether he was aware that PH Trams was incorporated a few months before winning the bid, and had a capital of only P625,000.

PH Trams-CB&T was the maintenance provider for the MRT 3 from October 20, 2012 to September 3, 2013, before being replaced by Global-APT JV from September 5, 2013 to July 4, 2015. The existing maintenance provider is with Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI).

“Nung nagkaroon ng desisyon…Nago-orient ako sa DOTC. The last thing I would want [to know] is to how all these bidders are partnering themselves. I was orienting sa air, rail and sea,” Abaya said.

He said there was a “presumption” on his part “that the organization, the bureaucracy was doing its job.”

“Imagine if i came there as a doubting Thomas being careful that I won’t sign anything, MRT 3 would have stopped on October 19, no maintenance provider, Sumitomo (the previous maintenance provider) would have packed their bags, titigil. That I couldn’t have explained to our people,” Abaya said.

Poe was referring to Abaya’s predecessor in the DOTC, former Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II. Roxas left the DOTC to transfer to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), replacing the late Secretary Jesse Robredo.

“If you want to find out, you could find out ma’am,” Abaya told Poe.

Poe and Roxas both ran for the presidency in the 2016 national elections. Roxas placed second to the eventual winner, President Rodrigo Duterte, while Poe placed third. —NB, GMA News